St Mary’s C.E. (V.A.) Primary School

Admissions Policy 2019-2020

Introduction

St. Mary’s School is a Voluntary Aided (VA) School, which means that members of the Parish of St. Andrew and St. Mary Wakefield contributed towards the building and maintenance of the school. All admissions are controlled by the governors, in accordance with this policy.

Parents wishing to visit school before or after making an application should contact the school office to make arrangements. Information meetings for each new intake are arranged before your child begins school.

Admissions Number

The Governing Body has responsibility for admissions to St. Mary’s CE (VA) Primary School. The standard Admission Number (AN) or Planned Admission Number (PAN) for our school is 30 for the academic year which begins September 2019. The Governing Body will not place any restriction on admissions unless the number of children for whom admission is sought exceeds this number.

Point of Entry

For children starting full time school for the first time in Reception Class it is determined that there will be one point of admission during the school year. Therefore, pupil with a date of birth between 1st September 2014 and 31st August 2015 will start school on the first day the school is open following 1st September 2019.

Admission Procedures

The Governing Body of St. Mary’s CE (VA) Primary School is the admissions authority for the school. The Local Authority operates a co-ordinated admissions scheme and administers a system of equal preferences under which all applications are considered equally and the school’s governing body allocates the available places in accordance with its published admissions policy. In the event that there are more applications than places available, the governing body will allocate places using the following over subscription criteria, which are listed in order of priority.

Parents applying for a place in our school must complete a Wakefield Common Application Form (WCAF) expressing up to five preferences in order. The WCAF must be returned directly to the Local Authority.

If you wish your application to be considered using the Christian Commitment Oversubscription criteria you will need to supply additional information by completing a Supplementary Information Form (SIF). A SIF is available from the school office and this should be returned to the school office directly. Additional information on the SIF is needed to determine priority for admissions to our school if there are more applications than places available.The form should be signed by the Vicar, Rector, Priest in Charge, etc. During an interregnum the form should be signed by a Churchwarden.

If the number of applications received does not exceed the admission number, all preferences will be met. If there are more applications received than places available the Governing Body applies the school’s admission criteria, which is determined by the Governing Body. The admission criteria set out the order in which places will be offered. Where there are more applications on the same criteria level than places available then places will be offered in order of distance from to the school i.e. those living closest to the school as the ‘crow flies’ will be offered places ahead of those living further away on any particular criteria level.

Over Subscription Criteria

When there are more applications for admission than there are places available, preference will be given in the following order:

(All children with special educational needs or disability SEND whose statement or plan names the school will be allocated a place)

  1. Children in public care (Looked After Children), or a child who was previously looked after or fostered under an arrangement made by the Local Authority.*
  2. Children who live within the LA catchment area for the school and who have brothers and sisters on rollat the time of admission. The parents of these children have a church commitment.
  3. Children who live within the LA catchment area for the school who have brothers and sisters on rollat the time of admission.
  4. Children who live within the LA catchment area for the school and whose parents have a church commitment;
  5. Children who live within the LA catchment area for the school;
  6. Children of staff members who have been working at the school on a permanent basis for two or more years at the time the application is made.**
  7. Children who live in the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield, who have brothers and sisters on rollat the time of admission. The parents of these children have a church commitment.
  8. Children who live in the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield who have brothers and sisters on rollat the time of admission.
  9. Children who live in the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield and whose parents have a church commitment.
  10. Children who live in the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield;
  11. Children who live outside the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield who have brothers and sisters on rollat the time of admission. The parents of these children have a church commitment.
  12. Children who live outside the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield who have brothers and sisters on roll at the time of admission.
  13. Children who live outside the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield whose parents have a church commitment;
  14. Children who live outside the Parish of St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s Wakefield.

Notes:

  • In all categories “live” means the child’s permanent home address. A child is normally regarded as living with a parent or guardian and the LA will use the parent or guardian’s address for admission purposes. An applicant cannot lodge a child with a friend or relation in order to gain a place at a school.
  • * Children in Public Care - This refers to children who are:
  • subject to a care order made by the courts under section 31 of the Children Act 1989 – for the courts to grant a care order they have to be satisfied that a child is suffering or would suffer ‘significant harm’ without one;
  • Children who are accommodated by the local authority on a voluntary basis under section 20 of the Children Act 1989; and
  • Children who have been adopted from Local Authority care, children with a residency order and those with special guardianship immediately following being Looked After will all be included within the higher priority for looked-after children.
  • * *This refers to children of any member of staff who has been employed directly by St. Mary’s CE (VA) Primary School in a permanent capacity for two or more years at the time of application. This does not apply to children of any members of staff working at St. Mary’s CE (VA) Primary School who are employed by other organisations.
  • Where there is more than one application from a postal address contained within a blockof flats, places will be decided by random allocation. If two or more pupils live equidistant from the school, the distance each pupil lives by road from the preferred school will be measured and the place offered to the pupil who lives nearest by this means. In the event of this being equal, places will then be decided by random allocation.
  • Where the admission of siblings from a multiple birth (eg twins, triplets) would cause the school to rise above its Planned Admission Number (PAN), all of the children from the multiple birth will be admitted.
  • In the case of infant classes, where the admission of the children from a multiple birth would result in the PAN rising above 30 (or multiples of 30), the additional child/children will be regarded as an ‘exception’ to the Infant Class Size legislation throughout the infant phase or until the number in the year group reduces to the PAN.

Closing Date for Applications to Upper Foundation Stage

The closing date for applications for Upper Foundation for September 2019 is 15th January 2019.

The Local Authority will inform parents of the offer of a place by second class post on 15th April 2019. Parents who have applied electronically will be able to access their offer of a school place via the on-line website after 12.00 midnight on the respective offer date.

Unsuccessful Applications / Appeals

Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is oversubscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002.

Parents who intend to make an appeal against the Governing Body’s decision to refuse admission must submit a notice of appeal to:

The Clerk to Aided School Appeal Panel

Wakefield Diocesan Board of Education

Church House

1 South Parade

Wakefield

WF1 1LP

Telephone : 01924 371802

Within twenty-one days of receiving the refusal letter.

Normally appeal hearings will be held within six weeks of the closing date for receiving the notice of appeal.

If your child was refused a place in Reception or Key Stage 1 because of Government limits on Infant class sizes, the grounds on which your appeal could be successful are limited. You would have to show that the decision was one which in the circumstances no reasonable Governing Body would have made, or that your child would have been offered a place if the governors’ admissions arrangements had been properly implemented.

Please note that this right of appeal against the governors’ decision does not prevent you from making an appeal in respect of any other school.

Waiting List

Parents who wish their child to be included on the waiting list must inform the school in writing. Any places that become available will be allocated according to the published oversubscription criteria of the admission policy with no account being taken of the length of time on the waiting list or any priority order expressed as part of the main admission round.

In accordance with paragraph 3.27 of The Admissions Code. - As soon as school places become vacant The Governing Body must fill the vacancies from any waiting list, even if this is before admission appeals have been heard. Placing a child’s name on a waiting list does not affect a parent’s right of appeal against an unsuccessful application.

The waiting list will be reviewed and revised:

  • each time a child is added to, or removed from, the waiting list
  • when a child’s changed circumstances will affect their priority
  • at the end of each school year, when parents with a child on the waiting list will be contacted and asked if they wish to remain on the list for the following school year.

It should be noted that children who are the subject of direction by a local authority to admit or who are allocated to a school in accordance with an In-Year Fair Access Protocol (paragraph 3.28 of The Admissions Code), must take precedence over those on a waiting list. Where an admission authority holds a waiting list, they must make clear in their admission arrangements that these children will take precedence over any child already on that list. Legislation enables this to be done immediately without the need to apply to the Schools Adjudicator for a variation in determined admission arrangements.

Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan

Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan are dealt with under a different mechanism. Any child with a school named on their statement or Education, Health and Care Plan will automatically gain a place at the school named in the statement or Education, Health and Care Plan via the statementing process. Any child with a statement of special education needs or Education, Health and Care Plan who is admitted to a mainstream community/voluntary controlled school will be counted against that school’s admission number.

Special Educational Needs is a term used if a child has difficulty accessing the curriculum, which may mean that he/she may need to have some form of specialist provision made for them in order to learn. It may be a general learning difficulty, an emotional, behavioural, sensory or physical disability or it may be a difficulty related to communication or speech and language. Further information can be obtained from the Special Educational Needs Assessment and Review Team or the Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS).

In-Year Admissions

All applications made outside the normal admissions round (i.e. in-year applications) for school should be made on the Wakefield’s Common Application Form, which is available from the School Admissions Team and the school office. Applications will be processed in accordance with the “In Year Co-ordination Scheme”. Parents can express up to 5 school preferences.

Where there are sufficient places, an application will normally be agreed. If a place is not available, a refusal letter is sent outlining the right of appeal. If the application is from a Wakefield resident, then a place will be allocated at the next nearest school with places. Should the child be already attending a Wakefield school then no school will be offered as an alternative. The child’s name will be added to the waiting list for the school in the order against the Admissions Policy above. Should a vacancy arise at the school, the place will be offered to the child at the top of the waiting list.

Fair Access Protocol

The LA has agreed a Fair Access Protocol with its primary and secondary schools. This means that, in some circumstances, pupils defined in the Protocol will have a higher priority for admission to schools and/or year groups, which are already full, than all other pupils seeking admission to that school. Full details of the Protocol can be obtained from the LA.

This information is published by the Governors of St Mary’s CE (Voluntary Aided) Primary School.

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